Definition of "few" [few]

• Amounting to or consisting of a small number: one of my few bad habits. (adjective)
• Being more than one but indefinitely small in number: bowled a few strings. (adjective)
• An indefinitely small number of persons or things: A few of the books have torn jackets. (noun)
• An exclusive or limited number: the discerning few; the fortunate few. (noun)
• A small number of persons or things: "For many are called, but few are chosen” ( Matthew 22:14). (pronoun)
• A small number of; hardly any (determiner)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• (as pronoun; functioning as plural) (determiner)
• A small number of (determiner)

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• "I wish I could place every one before my readers to receive the meed of praise she so richly deserves; only a few, _very few_, names now occur to me."
• "+Adversative+, meaning of (note) _A few, a little_, vs. _few_ and _little_"
• "And even when these few were gathered together, and under the extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, many were added to them, and "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul," they were still comparatively but a _few_."